A Potential Bulldog Connection To The Heisman Trophy

Dec 04, 2012

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University football program will have a unique connection to the Heisman Trophy should Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein earn the distinction as college football's top player this season when the results are announced this weekend.

Klein's father, Doug, served as Ferris State's offensive coordinator during the 1987 campaign under former FSU head coach and current Hillsdale head coach Keith Otterbein.

A talented senior quarterback, Collin Klein is among three finalists for the nation's most presigious college football honor and has been invited to the Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony to take place on Saturday night in New York.

Klein is a multi-talented quarterback who has scored 22 touchdowns on the ground this season and thrown for 15 more while leading the seventh-ranked Wildcats (11-1) to the Big 12 title. He has already received the Johnny Unitas Award given to the top upperclassman quarterback in the nation and will finish his Kansas State career against Oregon in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in early January.

Klein's father came to Ferris State after serving as a graduate assistant coach at Indiana in 1985 and 1986. He was a two-year letterman at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., before transferring to Colorado State where he earned his bachelor's degree in physical education.

During his lone season with the Bulldogs in 1987, Doug Klein helped FSU to a 4-7 overall record in Otterbein's second season at the helm and the total included a three-game winning streak to close out the campaign.

Following his one-year stint on Otterbein's staff at Ferris State, Doug Klein moved on to the Division I level as an assistant coach on Dick Crum's first Kent State staff. One of his fellow coaches with the Golden Flashes was current Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, who eventually left to take a position as the offensive coordinator at Kansas State under Bill Snyder. Currently, Snyder is midst his second stint as the Wildcats' head coach.

Doug Klein spent three years at Kent State before returning to Colorado and heading into the business world where he's currently a mortgage broker in the Loveland area.

In addition to Collin Klein, another son Kyle is a redshirt freshman wide receiver at Kansas State.